Blazers remain high in power rankings

Clippers at home Thursday night. Heat at home Saturday night. OKC away on New Year’s Eve. If any Blazermaniacs out there are peeved about being excluded from Christmas Day festivities, what’s left on the schedule for the rest of 2013 will take care of the national attention they crave.

Five golden rings. We couldn’t leave any of Portland’s starters out, who are the only five-man group to have started every game this season. We won’t speculate whether they’ll be receiving any other rings this year, but this group deserves something shiny for powering the Blazers’ sensational start.

If the NBA had flex scheduling for Christmas, you can bet the Blazers would have made the cut. Only two games for Portland this week but they are tests: the Los Angeles Clippers and the Miami Heat. The good news is they catch both teams at home on the second night of a back-to-back.

Portland (23-5)Pace: 97.1 (13), OffRtg: 110.5 (1), DefRtg: 104.5 (22), NetRtg: +6.0 (6)
Damian Lillard is unreal. He followed up his game-winner in Detroit with a better one in Cleveland. Then he hit this ridiculous shot to put the Blazers ahead for good in Saturday’s win over the Pelicans. He shot 19-for-36 from 3-point range last week and has been the best pull-up jump-shooter in the league this season. You just wonder when the Blazers are going to pay for their bottom-10 defense.This week: vs. LAC, vs. MIA

Erik Gundersen

Erik Gundersen is the Trail Blazers beat reporter for The Columbian. He's a graduate of the Allen School of Journalism and Communication at the University of Oregon in addition earning a degree in Spanish. He's covered the NBA for four seasons. You can also occasionally find his work on ESPN.com's NBA section for their TrueCities series. He also fist-bumped with Kanye West once. Follow @BlazerBanter on twitter for more Blazers and NBA news.